Wired (17 page)

“And the Israelis responded?” Bridges asked.

Carson smiled with a cynical grin. “We always knew that the Jews had nuclear weapons hidden in underground silos. Like a flyswatter
killing gnats, they hit the land of Gog with an awesome blow. Only animals of prey would dare venture into those radioactive
parts of Russia where their missiles exploded. The Russians will never again be a problem.”

Graham stared. This man was talking like he ran the world with the same skill Graham drove a car. His answers carried such
authority it suggested he might have data that the United States had not yet gathered.

“Frank,” Carson continued, “we are currently centralizing databases across the world, fusing them together into a single system
which will allow us to ferret out all suspicious and potentially dangerous intrusions happing anywhere in the world. We will
be able to monitor a surveillance system with almost universal control. I believe the time has come to move the entire metroplex
of Chicago into this unit and give you access not only to your city, but the region.” Carson maintained his engaging smile.
“Soon you will be responsible for the entire United States.”

Frank Bridges swallowed hard. “Thank you, sir, for such a vote of confidence.”

“I always expect you to perform with such skill,” Carson said. “You gentlemen should also be aware that we are installing
a new system here in Istanbul with a type of ‘black box’ surveillance that will alert us to all suspicious patterns of behavior
in your country. We will soon be positioned not only to control but to anticipate hostile behavior, stopping terrorists from
striking with unclear weapons. Apocalyptic fanatics traveling around with secret means of mass destruction could be an ultimate
danger to the entire globe. Prepare yourself, gentlemen. The clock is speeding up!” Borden Camber Carson smiled and nodded
his head. The image faded and he was gone.

Graham stared at the blank stream of light, almost unable to grasp what he had just seen. While he was apprehensive about
Carson in the past, in a few moments the man overwhelmed him with a serene sense of confidence, control, and intelligence.

“I know you are surprised,” the mayor said, “but I have been consulting with Borden Carson for some time. He has chosen Istanbul
to be the center of his oversight of the petroleum industry stretching across the world. However, Carson is changing his focus
and moving very quickly in the political world. He has told me confidentially that within a few weeks, he will be propelled
to the office of prime minister of Turkey. As you know the Turks have chosen a secular road and no longer have a religious
agenda although they were formerly of a Muslim orientation. He will be in a highly influential position to affect the entire
region as well as the world.”

Graham shook his head. “I don't understand what any of this has to do with American politics?”

“Politics can no longer be regional, Graham. We can't limit ourselves to one hemisphere. For example, we must work out an
oil agreement to save our city vast amounts of money. Carson has assured me we will be given special consideration on pricing.
That's how the world works today.”

Graham took a deep breath. “We're not just trying to get you elected in Chicago,” he concluded. “You're talking about a worldwide
power base with all of us under the surveillance of an all-encompassing eye.”

Bridges smiled confidently. “Graham, play your cards right and I'll take you to the top, and that peak is getting up there
above Mount Everest!”

F
LYING DOWN
the Metro's tracks, Graham wondered if Carson had already given Bridges instructions on implanting electronic surveillance
devices that the mayor hadn't told Graham about. He certainly had plans to wire the whole city. Maybe the “big eye” was already
operating in his train car. Obviously, Bridges had elaborate political plans he hadn't told anyone about, and the idea disturbed
Graham.

But Borden Camber Carson left him confounded. The man's eyes danced with intense intelligence. As he reflected on their surprise
holographic conversation, he realized that the man pierced Graham's external defenses like a CT scan peering into a human
heart. His voice had been eminently enticing, but his eyes had a penetrating quality of mystery as if they concealed a vast
amount of clandestine information. Carson had read him like an open book. He didn't know whether to fear such a man or to
be delighted to be considered as one of his Inner Circle. More than confounded, Graham, felt apprehensive.

Graham shut the front door of their home behind him. Graham had tried to put everything he had heard in perspective, but the
pieces didn't fit. The faces of Maria, George, and Jeff had been pushed aside by Borden Camber Carson's beaming countenance.

Through the years Carson had been sequestered and managed to keep his face out of the newspapers and off the television. While
he nearly became a household word, virtually no one actually knew what the man looked like. Graham was surprised by both his
handsomeness and charm. The man's face seemed almost timeless; that made it difficult to guess his age. He could be in his
late thirties, his forties, maybe even older, but it was a guess.

He walked into the kitchen. “Son!”

“Hi, Dad.” Matthew turned and opened his arms.

Graham hugged his son. “Hey, we're glad you're home.” He glanced around the room. Jeff was playing on the floor. George sat
in a chair by himself next to the corner. “You boys okay?”

Jeff said, “Yes.” George nodded his head, but looked disconnected. Graham hugged George. The boy didn't speak.

“It's going to be okay,” Graham said. George didn't smile.

“Don't worry.”

George nodded his head, but still didn't say anything.

Jackie walked in. “We're glad you're home safely. I told Matt about yesterday. I hope today was successful?”

“Very strange,” Graham said thoughtfully. “Maybe we can talk about it later. Where's Mary?”

Jackie shook her head. “She called from the school and said she had a late drama practice tonight. She wants us to go ahead
without her.”

“I told her to be here.” Graham's voice turned hard. “In fact, I demanded we all hear what Matthew has learned.”

“I reminded her, but Mary said she had no alternative,” Jackie said. “I pushed her, but she hung up on me.”

“I don't like it.” Graham rubbed his chin. “I guess we don't have any choice, but she'll answer to me when she gets home.”

The family sat down together and quickly ate supper. Matthew talked about his classes and Jeff asked some questions. George
said nothing. Jackie kept glancing at her eithg-year-old son and Graham could see the worried look on her face. The battle
at the school had spun George back to where he had been after his grandmother's death. It would take love and a considerable
amount of talking to bring him back around.

“I'm sorry Mary won't be here,” Matthew finally said. “You know she's not too crazy about my ideas anyway.”

“The issue is that I gave her no alternative,” Graham said, “but I know you've go to get back to the university tonight, so
I guess we don't have any choice but to start without her.”

“I'm sorry,” Matthew said. “What I have discovered is the most important information that I've ever heard in my life. She
needs to hear these facts.”

Graham stood up. “Whether she likes it or not, we're going to record everything that's said tonight and she can listen to
it later. We're not going to be outfoxed by little Miss Mary.” He hit the switches on a box next to the telephone “I'm taking
the phone off the hook. We'll record through it and that will also keep us from being interrupted by any calls.”

Matthew pulled up a small briefcase and set it on the table. “I have something in here to show you,” he began. “I think I
have stumbled across the most amazing information in the world.” He reached inside the briefcase. “The may be hard for you
to accept, but I've found the answers to some of the most difficult questions we have all been facing.”

“Son.” Graham scooted closer to the table. “What do you have?”

“Will you and Mom please hear me out before you make any final judgments?”

“Sure, Matt.” Graham looked at Jackie. “We'll agree.”

Matthew pulled out a black leather-covered book. “It's
the Bible.”

Graham's eyes widened.
“The Bible?”
He looked at Jackie. “What are you talking about, Matthew?”

“As strange as it sounds, I met with a few kids and some adults who have found in this one book answers to what's going on
in our world. As I listened to them talk, I found the answers to why the world has gone crazy.”

Graham stared at the book. “Sure. I've heard of the Bible. Mother had one she kept somewhere but I've never read it.”

“Matt, you don't really mean that this book has explanations for what is happening in our world today?” Jackie shook her head.
“It was written ages ago. This doesn't make any sense to me.”

“Mom, let me show you something.” Matthew started thumbing through the pages near the back. “Haven't we all wondered why the
color of the moon has changed to a reddish glow? We've heard the weathermen scramble for answers, but nothing fits together.”
He stopped and opened up the Bible. “Listen. ‘The full moon became liked blood.’ See, there it is.” He pushed the Bible toward
her.

Jackie looked at the words. “My goodness.”

Graham frowned. “Matthew, you could have found a quote like that in a book of poetry… any book for that matter.”

“But it jars you, doesn't it?” Matt picked up the Bible and started thumbing back through the pages. “Let me show you something
else. You've wondered what happened to that multitude of people who simply disappeared. Right?”

“Of course,” Graham conceded.

Matthew put his finger under a line in the Bible and started reading again. “Listen carefully. ‘Then we who are alive, who
are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord.’” He looked up. “That's what happened to all
of those people. They were Christians; they were raptured.”

“
Raptured
!” George spoke virtually for the first time that evening. “I've never heard of that word before.”

“It's how some Christians describe the experience that they anticipated would happen,” Matt explained. “At the end of the
age, they believed they would be taken out of this word just before a time of wars, strife, and terrible tribulation.”

“Stop!” Graham said. “You're telling me that all of those people were simply jettisoned up and out of this world?”

“Dad, that's why the churches are empty.” Matt grinned. “It makes perfect sense. These Christian people left and the churches
are empty even today.”

Graham kept blinking. “It makes sense but… I…don't… know.”

“We haven't believed in this sort of thing,” Jackie said. “You are talking as if you came in tonight from another world.”

“I have, Mom. Most of these people in the New Seekers group already knew a great deal about the Christian faith before this
Rapture happened, but they weren't committed to Christ. Several of these people are Jewish and they knew the Old Testament
inside out. That's what has bound them together in such a secret group.”

“I don't know, Matthew,” Graham said. “You've found a couple of amazing answers, but that doesn't prove the Bible is correct
or even comprehensive.”

Matthew flipped back through the pages again. “I want you to hear some more. Listen to what Jesus promised was coming. ‘And
you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places:
all this is but the beginning of the sufferings.’”

Graham could feel the blood draining from his face. “Lately we've heard of nothing but strife, fighting, killings.” He shook
his head again. “Right now we are in another war.”

“Want me to tell you about this war that just broke out?” Matt said. “We studied it last night.”

Jackie's mouth dropped. “
You studied it
?”

“Adah Honi is Jewish,” Matt explained. “Her family was caught up in one of the wars around Jerusalem and she came to the United
States to study even though she's older than the average college student. Adah has an amazing grasp of the Old Testament.”

Jackie ran her hand nervously through her hair. “I don't even know what to think about what you are saying, Matthew. Good
heavens! What did this woman say about the current war?”

“Look.” Matthew put his finger in a section of the Old Testament. “At least five hundred and fifty years before the Christian
era, Ezekiel wrote these words. That's two thousand and five hundred years ago. In those days they called the regions that
are now Russia by the name of Gog an Magog. Ezekiel 38 and 39 predict the time when Gog Magog or Russia attacks Israel. Here's
what's going to happen to the Russians.”

“You're telling me that this last war was prophesied centuries ago?” Graham blurted out.

“Listen to it, Dad.” Matthew started reading. “‘You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the
peoples that are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the wild beasts to be devoured. You shall
fall in the open field; for I have spoken, says the Lord God. I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in
the coastland.’” He stopped. “Isn't that what just happened?”

Graham started to speak, but stopped.

“Well,” Matthew pushed, “hasn't every word that I just read to you happened in the past six months? We have been living through
the final chapter of human history.”

The countenance on the faces of both George and Jeff changed. Depression was replaced by fascination. The two boys kept shaking
their head.

“You bet!” George said with new enthusiasm in his voice.

“I guess I didn't expect anything quite so dramatic, so final,” Graham said. He took a deep breath. “I don't know what I was
expecting.” He stood up and started pacing back and forth. “Matthew, how many people know about what this New Seekers group
is teaching?”